Sailing News Fall 2015

IMAGE © 2010 ROB MIGLIACCIO

Sailing News

Fall/ 2015

YALE SAILING ͵ FALL 2015 REPORT hroughout the fall season, the coed and women’s teams collectively entered between three to five regattas each weekend.

The coed team started the season on a strong note, placing fifth at the Harry Anderson trophy and also winning the Hatch Brown trophy for the second year in a row. Current juniors Ian Barrows and Mitchell Kiss, along with crews Natalya Doris and Clara Robertson, proved early on that they would be strong competitors throughout the season.

Freshmen skippers Nic Baird and Nick Hernandez made their college sailing debut this fall, and each contributed to successful results such as the Hewitt Trophy, where along with sophomore Malcolm Lamphere, the skippers contributed to a first place finish by a margin of 60 points.

The freshmen duo also won the all-freshmen Nickerson Trophy with the help of freshmen crews Claire Rossi de Leon and Kira Woods. At the Danmark, the first major intersectional regatta of the year, members of the coed team placed fourth place against a very competitive fleet. The coed team also qualified to sail in the New England Match Racing Championship in Rhode Island, where they placed third. Three members of the coed team – junior Mitchell Kiss, sophomore Malcolm Lamphere, and freshman Nic Baird, earned three of the four berths to the Men’s Singlehanded Championship. At the Dave Perry Trophy, the only team racing event of the season, a group of Yale sailors with varying levels of experience in team racing achieved an impressive fifth place result within a competitive fleet. Lastly, members of the coed team placed fifth at the 74th Erwin Schell Trophy and advanced to the final regatta of the season: the Atlantic Coast Championship. Six members of the coed team traveled to Norfolk, Virginia for ACC’s. Skippers Mitchell Kiss and Ian Barrows, along with crews Doris, Robertson, and Belling, achieved a close second place behind Coast Guard Academy.

Overall, the coed results show great promise for our spring season.

Throughout the fall, we experimented with new pairings, and many female members of the team transitioned back and forth between coed and women’s events. Members of the coed team adapted well to new roles and new partners throughout the season, and each regatta served as a learning experience revealing areas that we can refine.

The women’s team gained momentum throughout the fall season.

While the crews for each regatta tended to vary, the female skippers who competed this season were junior Marly Isler along with sophmores Casey Klinger, KB Knapp, and Claire Heubner (who also contribute to both the coed and women’s teams as a skipper and crew this fall). Klinger and junior crew Isabelle Rossi de Leon sailed A division at most events and typically placed within the top five places of their division. Members of the women’s team began the season with a fourth

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place finish at the competitive Stu Nelson Trophy and a ninth place in the Regis Bowl regatta. The women’s team performed especially well at the Navy Fall regatta as well as Yale Women’s. At Navy Fall – an intersectional regatta with three divisions – the women’s team placed third overall. Klingler and Rossi de Leon placed third in A division, Isler and junior Natalya Doris lost a close tie breaker for first place in B division, while sophomore Claire Heubner placed ninth in C division. At the Yale Women’s intersectional regatta, sophomore skippers Klingler and Knapp along with crews junior Rossi de Leon, senior Emily Johnson, sophomore Claire Huebner, and freshman Kira Woods, placed third. Knapp displayed an especially strong performance with a close 2nd place finish in B division. Finally, the women’s team placed fifth at the Victorian Coffee Urn trophy to qualify for the Atlantic Coast Championship at St. Mary’s College. At ACC’s, skippers Knapp and Klinger, along with crews Kira Woods, Claire Huebner, and Emily Johnson, placed 6th overall in a very tight fleet.

PICTURED AT TOP: CLAIRE HUEBNER AND CAROLINE COLWELL WORKͳ ING ON BOAT HANDLING

MITCHELL KISS, MALCOLM LAMPHERE AND NIC BAIRD CELEBRATING MALCOLMS WIN

SAILING / FALL, 2015

COACH’S CORNER Dear Alumni and friends, This fall has been a fantastic learning experience for our young team at YCYC. The team has had some excellent results in both MCNAY FAMILY DIRECTOR OF YALE Co-ed and Women’s SAILING, ZACK LEONARD ‘89 competition, but the highlight of the fall was Malcolm Lamphere’s win at the ICSA Single-handed National Championship! Malcolm deserves a lot of credit for his excellent performance in a super competitive field, but also for the long hours of training that he did over the summer in Lasers. His hard work over the summer allowed him to focus on double-handed, dinghy sailing for much of the fall and continue to take advantage of our competitive practices to improve that part of his game. The fleet at this Championship was truly world class.

Three of the top 5 competitors will likely represent their nations at the Rio Olympics next summer and they have been training hard for the past 2 years in Lasers. Congratulations to Malcolm!

We are really excited about the team’s potential this year. We still have a lot of work to do, but if we can have the type of work ethic that the team has shown for the last several Springs, then I think we have a chance to be competitive. Our freshman group has done a fantastic job this fall. We are particularly impressed with that group and look forward to all of them adding to our team racing

efforts in the spring.

All the sailors on the team join me in thanking all the members of the Yale Sailing Associates for providing such amazing support for the team. The Sailing Associates comprises parents, sailing team alums and friends of Yale Sailing. This group provides all the financial backing for our sailing program, but it does much more that that. Alumni mentorship of our sailors has been the secret strength of Yale Sailing for many, many years. When I was a student at Yale I was so lucky to have the coaching and mentorship of Dave Perry, Peter Isler and Jonathan Mckee. To have the chance to crew for Pedro and Dave at International level match races as an undergrad was an experience that literally opened my eyes to the opportunities and adventures that sailing could offer. When I was just a Freshman I had the good fortune to “Judge” an event that we were hosting at YCYC along with Harry Anderson. Harry and I spent a day in the committee boat talking about rules and sailing history. Of course Harry followed up by sending me a copy of the Appeals and Cases of the sailing rules. Harry is one of the last devotees of the lost art of correspondence. I still receive relevant articles in the mail from Harry, accompanied by thoughtful comments. These sailing connections have been the most special part of my Yale experience and they are the reason that I came back to Yale to coach. I try my hardest to pay this forward, and when I see recent sailing alumni coming back to New Haven to spend time with the current team I am incredibly proud of the community that we are so luck to enjoy. Thanks for your continuing support.

PICTURED ABOVE: MALCOLM LAMPHERE ON HIS WAY TO VICTORY AT THE SINGLEͳHANDED NATIONALS

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SAILING / FALL, 2015

FROM THE ASSOCIATES

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ast spring saw Yale Sailing sweep all three spring championships, a feat that had not been achieved by any college sailing team in almost a quarter-century. Morgan Kiss ’15 was named Women’s College Sailor of the Year, and Graham Landy ’15 was runner-up on the coed side. This fall, YCYC’s success has continued unabated, with Malcolm Lamphere ’18 winning Singlehanded Nationals in early November, and the coed team placing 2nd at ACCs. Both the coed and women’s teams have been consistently ranked in the top 3 nationwide all fall. Coaches Zack Leonard ’89 and Bill Healy, along with team racing coach Zeke Horowitz, have continued to work their magic.

Our alumni have been active sailors as well. On the Olympic trail, Stu McNay ’05 and Thomas Barrows ’10 / Joe Morris ’11 have had solid successes leading up to the trials next year. Former YSA President Steve Benjamin ’78 won the New York Yacht Club’s prestigious Mosbacher Trophy for outstanding on the water achievement this year, including winning Etchells North Americans (and placing 2nd at Worlds), the Fort Lauderdale to Key West Race, and the Marblehead to Halifax Race. We also fielded an alumni team for the Lee Trophy in Oyster Bay, and plenty of alumni have been successful in other boats and campaigns as well. As always, if you’re interested in sailing with YCYC Alumni Team Racing, please contact Phil Stemler ’07 (Philip.stemler@gmail.com), and he’ll set you up.

As many of you know, last spring we participated in a Yale Athletics campaign to increase our annual giving base. We increased our donor base by 78 alumni, or over 6% of our total alumni base.

While we did not win either category, we were in the top echelon in both. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all of our Cohort Captains for all their hard work for Yale Sailing both in this campaign and in their efforts since.

During last spring’s campaign, many of you learned that we are more dependent than ever on annual giving for Yale Sailing. A combination of factors including lower endowment yields, the addition of a part-time team racing coach, and higher expenses and fees all have created strain on the team’s budget. To this end, when you consider your year-end donations, we ask that you consider Yale Sailing specifically as well. If you have any questions or would like further detail, please do not hesitate to reach out to either one of us or Zack.

This year the YSA dinner will be a week later than usual, on the evening of Monday January 18th (MLK Monday), again at the Graduate Club. It will certainly be a blowout, given the team’s accomplishments in 2015. This year, we are ensuring that more of our funds go towards team costs. In the past, the Associates dinner has been a significant expense of over $5,000. As a result, we are asking all guests to pay $75 to attend the event. The team will still be free. An invitation with a way to pay will be forthcoming, but for now please save the date. More information is included on the last page of this newsletter.

Sail fast, happy holidays, and see you on January 18th – Jamie and Ted

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COMMODORE’S REPORT

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CYC undergrads have been off to a promising start this fall, winning the Hatch Brown, Hewitt, and Nickerson trophies and finishing in the top four in the Pine, Stu Nelson, Danmark, Navy Fall Women’s, Captain Hurst, Yale Women’s, Hoyt, and Southern Series 7. Yale qualified three singlehanded sailors for nationals, Mitchell Kiss ‘17, Malcolm Lamphere ‘17, and Nick Baird ‘18, all of whom finished in the top seven. Lamphere captured the national title for Yale, which was last ours in 2011. We also posted a strong team on the match racing circuit and just missed out qualifying for nationals after close racing against Dartmouth and Harvard. Our freshman class, consisting of Nick Hernandez (Placida, FL), Nick Baird(St. Petersburg, FL), Claire Rossi de Leon (Honolulu, HI), and Kira Woods (Newport Beach, CA) are already posting strong results at top tier events and keeping the upperclassmen on their toes.

The club has also been well represented at non-collegiate events. Undergrads and alumns alike have competed in the national match racing circuit, beloved keelboat team racing events like the Lee Trophy and Morgan Cup, and various 5o5 regattas, among a multitude of other events. Stuart McNay ’05, Thomas Barrows ‘10 and Joseph Morris ‘11 are continuing their campaigns for the 2016 Olympic games. Dave Perry ‘77 added a fifth National Match Racing Championship to his long list of accomplishments, while Steve Benjamin ‘78 finished second at Etchells Worlds, just two points out of first. And, of course, our members everywhere are living up to the YCYC reputation of being great friends and competitors at local scenes across the nation.

SAVE THE DATE YALE SAILING ASSOCIATES ANNUAL MEETING AND DINNER Monday, January 18, 2016 Cocktails – 6:00 pm • Dinner – 7:00 pm Cost is $75 for alumni and guests. A former email invitaƟon will follow.

If you have ques ons, or would prefer to RSVP over the phone, please contact the Athle cs Alumni Office at 203-432-1434 Payment is required to hold a spot at the dinner